


Of Red Hoods and Little Robins

by Acxa_Kogane



Series: Extended Mayhem [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Arrows, Dick Grayson is Robin, First season of YJ, Gen, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Library break ins, Multiverse Travel, Name-Calling, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Poor Jay has no idea what's going on but he's involved now so he has to deal with it, Roy may or may not be irresponsible, Sort Of, The Outlaws are awesome, Tim gets teased even though he isn't actually there and they have no idea they're doing it, Time Travel, YJ universe, actual detective work done by a bat for once, don't mind me I'm just going to mess around with canon and timelines a bit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:22:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24228784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acxa_Kogane/pseuds/Acxa_Kogane
Summary: The fact that beeping woke him up made him mad. Why was it always the beeping? It was so cliche that he decided to ignore it. He wasn’t going to succumb to cliche-ness. Ever.Then somebody entered the room. Well, they didn’t really enter, he just became aware of their presence in the room.Crap. He only knew of one group of people with that talent.Batman and his Bat-Brats.orJason wakes up in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar face
Relationships: Artemis Crock & Dick Grayson & Kaldur'ahm & Kon-El | Conner Kent & M'gann M'orzz & Wally West, Dick Grayson & Wally West, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & YJ Team, Roy Harper & Koriand'r & Jason Todd, Roy Harper/Koriand'r
Series: Extended Mayhem [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748794
Comments: 97
Kudos: 468





	1. Little Robin

**Author's Note:**

> You do not need to have read the first work in this series to have read this one. This fic just got its start in May Mayhem, but I wasn't able to handle updating a continuous storyline every day, so it's ended up over here instead.
> 
> Have fun following me along on a very spontaneous ride that my tired, overstressed brain decided to take me on. I have about as much idea as you as to where this is going to go. It's gonna be fun :D

  
The fact that beeping woke him up made him mad. Why was it always the beeping? It was so cliche that he decided to ignore it. He wasn’t going to succumb to cliche-ness. Ever.

Then somebody entered the room. Well, they didn’t really enter, he just became aware of their presence in the room.

Crap. He only knew of one group of people with that talent. 

Batman and his Bat-Brats.

Now he had to choose between faking sleep while whoever it was stared at him, probably fully aware that he was awake, or opening his eyes to glare at them and in the process being forced into interaction that he had been steadfastly avoiding for almost a year. 

Why did the universe hate him so much to put him in these situations?!

Maybe he would wait and see if he could figure out which bat it was by their presence. Tim would be typing within ten minutes, Steph would take out her phone, Cass would probably come closer to see how he was (she was ridiculously nice like that), Dick would either call him out on not being asleep or fall for it and probably start talking to him or glaring at him depending on what he’d done.

That was another problem. He was having trouble remembering why he needed to be in the hospital in the first place. Hopefully it wasn’t Bruce or Demon Brat in the room. They’d both be utterly useless in helping him figure out what had happened and what was going on. Too judgmental and stubborn. Only their version of the story is the truth.

The worst part was that they’d both just be completely silent and stare at him or call him out — both things that he’d rather avoid. He chooses to wait and take inventory. 

That’s odd. He’s still wearing his suit - guns included. The plethora of weapons he carries are pressing into his back uncomfortably. Ow. That knife needs a better sheath. Clearly. Hopefully that won’t cause trouble if he needs to fight his way out of here. But the fact that he still has his guns is worrying him. It’s not that he’s upset that they’re not confiscated, but it’s NOT something that Batman would leave him with - much less a hospital. But if he’s not in a hospital what’s the deal with the beeping thingy? The temptation to open his eyes is growing - but he needs to know who this Bat is before that happens.

Currently all signs point to this being a med bay in some hero base. Either one that isn’t a bat base, and so they’ve left his guns because they’ve heard of his reputation, or he’s in a bat base and they’re containing him so his guns are useless or they’re afraid of what would happen when they try to take them out. His helmet is off, so he’s going to wager that they’re waiting on someone like Tim to hack into his suit to release the guns without them getting shocked or gassed or something. Technically that theory works for whoever it is that’s got him in a med bay.

His helmet was taken first, so whoever this is has more of a curiosity as to his identity then a worry about disarming him. Probably not a bat base then. Unless it’s Tim’s base and Tim wanted to make sure he was fine and didn’t care if he kept his guns or not. That wouldn’t explain why he still had his domino on though - unless this was a Titans med bay (or whatever team Tim was working with currently) and Tim wasn’t about to reveal his identity to a bunch of “strangers.”

The faint buzz of gauntlet holograph tech activating came from where the bat was located. That had to be Tim. So, he was either in one of Tim’s bases, one of the Titan bases, or somewhere else and Tim had arrived and was waiting for him to wake up so that way he could bust him out of whoever they were. 

Well, now that he was probably not in danger, he didn’t have to worry about faking sleep any longer. But something was still bugging him.

What had happened?

If he woke up and Tim had to brief him on what happened to him, that’d be embarrassing. There was no way he was opening his eyes until he had some idea of what had happened. All he had to do was think. Really hard. Until he remembered.

That was easier thought then done.

There was something about a mugger, flaming something (hair?), a weird noise, Roy yelling something geeky and nonsensical (and probably a reference), and then a really hard landing.

Okay, so he was going to bet that he was on a mission with the Outlaws — explaining the mugger and the flaming hair — and then there had been some kind of interference or attack — the weird noise and Roy’s yelling — and then they were knocked back by an explosion or blast — the falling sensation. 

That… didn’t really clear up where he was. It could honestly be any one of those places, though the Titans was the most likely. It’s possible that they’d been the ones who made the weird noise, then they felt bad for possibly injuring the Outlaws and then took them back to their base and tried to take care of them. It was just the kind of hero-y thing that they’d do.

Tim would know that he’d be hostile or just plain difficult with anyone else when he woke up, which explained why he was waiting for him to wake up. He probably shouldn’t keep him waiting. Even though he was probably the reason that he’d not been injured (other then that knife that was stabbing him) and was now getting held captive by his teammates. 

There was no point in trying to warn Tim that he was awake. Tim would either be fully aware of this fact, or completely unaware, depending on how much sleep the kid had had recently. Silently opening his eyes, he hoped for the latter. Tim was way too easy to prank when he was sleep deprived. It was almost unfair. He was forced to be responsible eventually and take care of him, which totally ruined all pranking opportunities. Ahh, the woes of being an older brother. 

The ceiling that he saw was white and pristine, but was full of medical equipment on sliding trollies. So this was a hospital grade bed (that much was obvious), and those were tools that were used in an emergency room. Typical for a superhero base to have in every single med bay and mandatory for every Batman-approved headquarters. Definitely a Titans base, unless his captors were just really well prepared probably bad guys. 

His eyes slid over to where Tim was sitting. Except it wasn’t Tim. It was…

“Robin???”

The kid who’s head snapped up was most assuredly, 100%, **not** Damian. Said kid was definitely a Robin, if the “R” on his chest was any indication. Jason knew his Robins, and he can verify that the outfit the boy was wearing was never a uniform that had been used on the streets, which meant…

His head fell back onto the bed and he groaned massively. 

Oh he did _**not**_ have time, or patience, to deal with this. 

Little Robin (as he dubbed him mentally) jumped up at his actions and scurried over to the side of the bed. 

“Are you okay?!”

He laughed dryly.

 _I hate my life. Why do **I** always get in these situations? I’m going to bet that _Wonder Woman _doesn’t have to deal with this kind of thing. Why is it always me? Of course the universe decided that the Outlaws just haven’t had enough on their hands recently so how about they deal with this also?_

"Sure kid. I'm _fine_."

Little Robin was still looking at him with a worried look on his face. He lifted his head up again.

“Please at least tell me that you’ve got a lady with fire hair and an idiot with a bow somewhere around here also?”

Little Robin cocked his head familiarly.

“Your teammates?”

“Give the boy a gold star.”

“No. They aren’t here. We only found you.”

“ _Uuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhhh._ ”

His head bounced slightly on the pillow, warping his vision of the ceiling for a bit.

_**Whhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyy** . I just wanted to have a nice mission. Was it **really** that much to ask?_

Little Robin was probably like, seven levels of confused right now. He was masking it impressively well. Or maybe this was just the kind of thing that happened. Actually, he should probably clarify something first.

“Kid?”

“Yeah?”

“How good are you at doing flips?”

“Acrobatics?”

“Yeah.”

Little Robin grinned at him - dang it he recognized that grin.

“I’m a pro.”

Of course. Because the universe loved Dick. Always the golden boy. 

Said golden boy was staring at him like he was crazy. Heh. Kid didn’t even know the half of it.

“Let me guess, you were on a mission with your team, then there was a weird noise and I appeared somehow, so you took me back to your base and were waiting for me to wake up.”

Dick raised an eyebrow.

“I take it you’ve done some detective work before?”

“Can’t wear a bat and not be a detective of some caliber.”

Little Robin made a strange face at the mention of his symbol. He sadistically hoped that the kid (or one of his teammates) had touched the red bat insignia and had a shocking surprise. 

“Right. Who are you?”

Hmm. Vague answer or scary answer?

“If I wanted you to know that, why would I be wearing a mask?”

Dick took it well and responded in kind.

“Don’t you mean a mask under a mask? Not a ton of people are so paranoid that they wear a mask under their helmet.”

He laughed. Oh, he liked this version of Dick. Smart enough to recognize a “no” and then roll with it. 

“But I wasn’t talking about your secret identity. After the amount of time it took to get your helmet off without it knocking out whoever tried, we’d pretty much assumed that you weren’t about to give us you secret ID just cause we asked nicely.”

“Smart kid. You can call me Red Hood.”

Dick’s smile became fake. Not a reaction he was unfamiliar with receiving.

“That’s… interesting. You know, there was a villain in the Gotham area a few years ago who went by that exact same name.”

He had to say, Dick was always a master of the low-key interrogation technique. A true “good cop”. 

“Well, isn’t that something. Think he’d be mad about me wearing a bat symbol and stopping crime with his name?”

Dick snorted.

“I’m gonna say yes.”

“Then my first mission is complete.”

“First mission? What’s your second?”

Well. He _did_ ask for it.

“How do you think Batman would feel about me going around committing crimes while wearing a bat symbol?”

Dick’s expression flashed to calculating before smoothing into that familiar happy neutral.

“Probably pretty ticked.”

“Then I have succeeded in both missions and can now die in peace.” He dramatically collapsed back onto the bed. “Double revenge is a sweet thing.” 

“Soooo, you’re an antihero?”

“What gave it away? The words or the guns?”

Little Robin bounced a bit, playing up on the innocent, curious kid act. Not that he doubted for a second that Dick was actually quite innocent (as of now) and very curious.

“Both.”

He rolled his eyes and swung his legs to the side of the bed. Dick gave him a questioning look.

“I’m fine. Other then the small knife that’s trying it’s best to stab my back, I’m just peachy so let’s get this over with.”

Dick stuck his head behind him, likely looking for the knife (it helped with the kid act) before looking up at him.

“Get what over with?”

“The interrogation of Batman’s, obviously. He sends Robin in for preliminary vetting and a scope before getting answers the tried and true Bat-way. I’ve got places to go and two idiotic teammates to find, so I’d like to be on my way pretty quickly.”

Little Robin nodded, likely planning to interrogate him more on the way to Batman’s interrogation room that he didn’t doubt for a second that he had. They left the room and walked out into the hallway and he began taking stock. 

Regular bat-grade hallway. Definitely was built by the bat. Dirt at the other end of the hallway near the corner. Entrance was that way and this wasn’t a moon or ocean base. Dirt wasn’t powdery, redish, or rich. Midwest or east coast then.

Dick turned away from the exit. Interrogation room was closer to the center of the base, but not too far from the containment rooms or med rooms. Containment rooms would be on the other side of the interrogation room if he didn’t see them on his way there. Training room should be around this area.

“Why do you want to get revenge on Batman?”

“Heh, kid, you do _not_ want to go there.”

Floors were scuffed and matte here. Speedster on the team then. He was willing to bet money that it was Wally. Gym that way then. Scuff marks on the walls. 

“Did Batman do something to you?”

“Don’t ask me about Batman.”

“Okay.”

No sign of containment rooms over here. Either this was a massive base, there were multiple entrances, this was a small base, or they weren’t expecting a lot of prisoners. If this was a kid’s base, it was probably going to be medium sized. Not too big, not too small. Multiple entrances could be debated. Prisoners were unlikely, unless this was a freelance kid’s team without a solid JL connection so they needed a place to store any criminals they caught semi-permanently. 

“Sooo, you have a team?”

“Yup.”

“I didn’t think that many antiheroes had teams.”

“That’s cause not a lot of antiheroes have similar enough goals to actually get along and mutually accept missions.”

“Oh. That makes sense. How’d you find your team?”

There really wasn’t a lot of harm in the questions (yet) and answering them would give some kind of impression of compliance. And that would lead to them underestimating him, which would give him a clear advantage. 

“I busted one of them out of terrorist jail cause I was bored and then he decided to stick around. The other one found me after the submarine I was fighting on blew up and she didn’t have much else to do so she came along.”

“Cool.”

“And don’t worry, the terrorist jail was a jail run by terrorists, not for holding terrorists.”

That would be the interrogation room up ahead. Looked the same as ever. Just as white. Just as boring and forgettable. Time to annoy the Bat out of his bat-brain while figuring out how to get out of here and find the rest of his team so they could get back to their universe. Easy peasy.


	2. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Bat?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What are you doing here?”
> 
> “Well, if you must know…. I’m waiting for you to finish up with this interrogation so that way I can leave and go get my idiot teammates before they set something on fire, blow something up, or tick somebody important off.”
> 
> Batman could not facepalm in an interrogation. He could growl though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I'm still recovering from surgery, but I have a lot of chapters already written for this, so you might get another one coming at you soon ;D

Batman stared at the teenager on the other side of the “glass." Said teenager was relaxed in the lone chair on his side of the invisible barrier. 

He couldn’t figure out why, but the posture just _irked_ him. It was like his intimidation factor was completely gone. Pointless. Just brushed off so easily like the teen was regularly interrogated by The Batman. It annoyed him, but the day he showed annoyance in front of a random teenager may as well be the day he hung up the cowl, so he was going to remain stoic. Though this specific teenager might be a little more than random. Something about him got on Batman's nerves and sent a concerning tingle down his back. Maybe it had to do with the fact he couldn’t tell where the young man was looking as he was wearing a domino mask. A domino mask quite similar to the one Robin wore. Suspiciously similar.

Speaking of Robin, the boy had asked to watch the interrogation - clearly curious as to who the mysterious man was. Batman knew that sending Robin out would just end with Robin hacking the cameras and watching anyway - possibly broadcasting the footage to the other members of his team who were just as curious as he was. They’d already been nagging him about how since they “found him” then they had a “right to know about him." 

The point was, he was quite done with dealing with difficult teenagers, so the cocky assurance of the guy he was interrogating was grating on his nerves. And it had only been thirty six seconds since the interrogating had started.

Most thugs or criminals that the Bat interrogated would begin offering information simply due to his intimidating presence - thereby starting the conversation and allowing him to gather what questions would need to be asked foremost. That was, in part, why Robin would chat with some of the criminals that he was to later interrogate. It relaxed them and often they’d let their guard down and let some facts slip. There was no other way to say it - a kid in a bright uniform with a stunning smile was far more likely to lull someone into a false sense of security then a full grown man cloaked in shadows with a terrifying reputation. 

In this case, Robin had done well, and their mystery visitor was clearly relaxed and didn’t seem to be on guard. But Batman wasn’t new to this game. This teenager, as strange as it may seem, had the same energy as say Lady Shiva when interrogated. Calm and confident in their skills, but the boy had confidence to the point of cockiness. He barely lifted his head when Batman swept into the room and was now very casually playing with a knife that he’d procured from somewhere - unfazed by the presence of the bat. 

Had he mentioned that he was irked?

“Who are you?”

The guy seemed to think about this for a second - mirroring his reaction when Robin had asked him a similar question. 

“Are you asking who I am under the mask, what my name is, what kind of guy I am, the ominous version I give the guys I spook, or some other vague and strangely situationally specific version of that question?”

Of course he had to be a smart aleck. Of course. 

“The first two options.”

“Well, you already know that I’m the Red Hood, and you should know that I’m not telling you who I am under the domino. Though, with you being the Batman, you’re probably already running what you have of my face and build through your most high-tech, advanced identity scan. I mean, it’s not like a domino really hides your identity too much, a little detective work and you can figure anybody out. Its like the equivalent of wearing a pair of sunglasses and then hoping that your friends don’t recognize you.”

Robin raised an eyebrow and interrupted his next question.

“If dominoes are so useless, why are you wearing one then?”

The guy rolled his eyes, the motion obvious even if one couldn't see his actual irises.

“So that way when I get kidnapped by strange people and they’ve taken my very identity-concealing helmet away, I have a second line of defense. Also sometimes you need to intimidate and other times you need to comfort. A domino is way more personal then a emotionless mask.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, if you must know…. I’m waiting for you to finish up with this interrogation so that way I can leave and go get my idiot teammates before they set something on fire, blow something up, or tick somebody important off.”

Batman could not facepalm in an interrogation. He could growl though.

“If you answer my questions with real answers, then we’d be done a lot faster.”

“Uh huh. Yeah. Cause questions don’t ever lead to other questions and suspects who refuse to cooperate are always known to have longer interrogations then those who do.”

Interesting.

“Hn. I take it you’ve had experience with interrogations before?”

“Yup. Interrogated lots of idiots, been interrogated by lot of idiots. Sometimes I wish that a guy who actually knows how to get answers would interrogate me sometime.” He folded his arms behind his head. “But it looks like today’s just not my day, huh?”

Oh. So the punk thought he was better then the Bat. _This should be good._

“Why are you here.”

“Because your sidekick - oh I’m sorry, I meant _partner_ \- brought me here.”

So he was familiar with Batman and Robin. And he had _opinions_ on the partner-sidekick dynamic. Curious.

“Why are you wearing a bat symbol?”

“Because it ticks off a very select group of people off. Thankfully those people are exactly the kind of people that I rather enjoy ticking off, so it’s quite useful all around.” 

“What kind of people would those be?”

The teenager smirked infuriatingly. “People who get ticked off by somebody like me wearing a bat.”

Growling was a perfectly acceptable way to interrogate someone.

“Why do you have guns?”

“Because a gun has more … _permanent_ results then a modified shuriken.”

Something in his stomach clenched at that. The kid couldn't even be in his 20's yet. And he'd already taken a life.

“So you’ve killed.” His voice came out tighter than he'd intended. Not that it seemed to matter.

“Yes.”

He suppressed a shudder at the casual, almost daring ease with which he answered. He hadn't taken a single life. He'd taken enough that he was numb to the horror.

Robin stiffened, but just barely. The teen looked at the younger boy, then back at Batman with an unreadable expression.

“Why? Does it bother you?” There was a hidden, almost curious lift to his voice. A taunt.

“You’re wearing my symbol and you’re killing people. That’s unacceptable.”

“Hmm." The young man kicked his feet up onto the table in front of him, heavy duty military grade boots crossing at the ankles casually. "Actually, this isn’t your symbol.”

What. 

“I mean, I don’t think you have a monopoly on silhouetted bat insignia. Do you even have a copyright for it?”

Batman was silent. Of course he had a copyright, but it was for the traditional black and/or yellow versions of the bat symbol. Not some knockoff modified red version. 

“Thought so. You’ve just been taking advantage of the fact that nobody’s dared to go up against the oh-so-terrifying Batman.”

Enough of this. He could see the small, amused curl at the corner of the teen's lips. This was entertaining to him.

“What are your plans?”

The guy shook his head, like _he_ was the exasperated one. “Get my team and get out of your hair. Simple. Just let me be on my way, and we’ll be all good.”

“That’s not happening until you prove that you mean no harm to us or anyone else.”

The young man rolled his eyes. “I can’t prove that. I can say that, but we all know you won’t believe that. I’m not going to hurt you unless you make me, I won’t hurt the rest of your team of heroes unless they ask for it, and I’m not hurting any civilians. The only people I’m going to hurt are criminals actively committing crime.” He paused. “And maybe my team once I find them doing something stupid. Probably. Oh, and that mugger I was fighting before this all happened. And definitely whoever’s responsible for getting me stuck in a hero base with the Bat and his bird. But yeah, nobody else unless they’re attacking me or attacking someone else. You can even get your Martian in here to verify it - but I swear, if she tries to find out anything other then my intentions towards you guys specifically, I’m going to consider that an attack and react accordingly.”

There was silence. 

He hated asking this question. It felt like a trap. Very much like a trap. But he asked it anyway.

“What are you proposing?”

“I’m proposing that you let me out of the interrogation room and then either let me go and find my team on my own, or you assist me in doing so. Once we know how to get back, we’ll do so immediately. There’s nothing we have against you as of yet and we really need to get back to our world and finish our mission, so could you please make a decision quickly?”

Robin frowned.

“What do you mean “your world”?”

“I mean, Goldie, that I’m not from your world and I need to get back to mine pronto. I know you have a theory of other universes and worlds out there B, and I’m just here to prove it’s true. This is the level of crazy that we deal with constantly, so it’s not really a new thing for us, though it looks like it might be for you, so if we could please just get to the part where you monitor me like the paranoid and suspicious idiot you are, that’d be great.”

Clearly, this teenager knew him from his reality. The name dropping and knowledge he had was additional proof of it, as was his armor (rather close to Batman’s in design) and his… efficiency at annoying him in the shortest possible time. 

“The guns stay holstered the whole time.”

He sat up, straightening, booted feet settling on the ground with a light thud. “Figured.”

“No unnecessary violence.”

“Of course”

“You’re on watch, so you’re going to defer to our authority.”

“. . .”

Robin bit back a laugh. “That’s where you draw the line? Really?”

“Shut up Rob. I don’t exactly have a good track record of sticking to orders and I’d rather not get in a fight just because I didn’t follow a ridiculous rule again. I’m not making promises I can’t ensure that I can keep, got it?”

Batman was surprised by the exasperated, almost _fond_ tone he used. It reminded him of siblings bickering. He took a closer look at the young man. Pale skin, defined cheekbones, well built, black hair, eyes covered by white lenses, but if he took the domino away, something told him he'd fine blue eyes. Just like his. Just like Robin's.

But he needed to be willing to defer to them. “It’s only reasonable-“

A muscle in the teen's neck tensed abruptly, the relaxed air snapping taut. “Then I’ll be reasonable." He hissed. "I _am_ capable of making reasonable decisions you know. I’m not crazy.” He seemed to notice something and froze, the unexpected anger draining out of him as he looked at the ground. The young man took a deep breath, calming himself down, before looking up neutrally. 

“I will listen to your collective orders and I will do my best to acquiesce to them, but I’m not going to be able to promise that I will listen all the time. If that’s not good enough for you, I can leave and then you won’t be able to monitor me at all. I’m giving you a good deal, considering we’ve never met and I have a list of reasons as long as my arm for why this is a terrible decision and why I should just get out of here while I can.” He stood up. “You can take it or leave it, but I’m not staying here any longer then I need and if you guys aren’t going to help then I’ll be leaving. Make your choice now.”

Batman frowned. He didn’t like it, but seeing the guns, he was hesitant to let the guy go freely. While him making it out of the base wasn’t likely, they knew nothing about his skills. He had openly admitted to using lethal force at times. If he forced the man to attempt an escape, he could be putting the lives of the untrained teens in the base on the line. Should he manage to overpower or outmaneuver him, even if it was only for a second, Robin would have the rest of the team coming to attack and restrain the intruder. Then they’d be within firing distance and the man would have plenty of targets to choose from. Even if the teen was overpowered and restrained, there was no way to predict how many could be injured or killed before that happened. 

He couldn’t risk it. 

But, with them monitoring him, he wouldn’t be able to make hostile moves without them having studied him first. They’d also be on their guard and he’d be at risk of losing their support to find his team and get back if he attacked. Overall, it was a mutually beneficial deal, with the benefits leaning more in their favor then his. 

“Very well. We will assist you in finding your teammates, but other missions will take priority. Understood?”

“Loud and clear.”

The man walked over to where he shouldn’t know the invisible wall was and waited for them to lower it. He pushed aside the worry that niggled at the back of his mind, and deactivated the barrier. The Red Hood waited for one of them to leave the room first. He motioned for the teen to go first. No way was he turning his back on him. Red Hood seemed to find this amusing, and walked out into the hallway before turning to face them with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. 

“Ya comin' Bats?”

And the infuriating teenager was back. 

He had just basically agreed to babysit this kid. What was he thinking. 

He was never going to have more kids. 

Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww, poor Brucey Bruce, thinking he won't have any more kids. *pats him* It's okay, we know you have an adoption addiction, and we still love you for it. (Unless you're treating your kids like trash *GLARES*)


	3. Redheads and Red Hoods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hey Kori!"
> 
> She stopped admiring the fish (or whatever she was doing) and came over to lean over his shoulder, "Yes?"
> 
> "So, it looks like Jaybird's gotten himself inside a small mountain. Again."

Jason was enjoying himself way too much.

“You can take it or leave it, but I’m not staying here any longer then I need and if you guys aren’t going to help then I’ll be leaving. Make your choice now.”

Batman was debating, that much was clear.

Fifteen seconds passed before Batman looked up and growled “Very well.”

He felt like doing a victory dance.

“We will assist you in finding your teammates, but other missions will take priority. Understood?”

Well duh.

“Loud and clear.”

Bruce had just agreed to his doom. His Bruce would never in a million years have agreed to this (especially because he knew Jason). It was going to be hilariously awesome. This was a version of Batman he’d almost forgotten, a lighter (ha), less stubborn, version. He was actually reasonable. It was refreshing.

If he didn’t have responsibilities back in his world, he’d be seriously tempted to just stay here. After all, his whole team was (probably) here. And it wasn’t like he was particularly attached to his world - what with how every part of his life that wasn’t involving the Outlaws was colossally messed up and pretty much unsalvageable.

He’d miss Alfred, and his relationship with Tim had been getting better, but other then those two connections, there wasn’t much he would miss. If this world had a timeline anything like his, then he’d be able to do a lot of work and possibly prevent a great deal of things.

Of course, he’d never be able to get too involved in the lives of the bats - having two Jasons would be ridiculously confusing. But just to think of all the lives he could save with his knowledge… staying was a very tempting choice, but he wasn’t going to make a decision like that rashly. He’d had enough life changing decisions forced on him. The chance to decide something like that on his own was also very tempting. Then all the consequences would be fully on his head.

Bruce motioned for him to exit the room first. It was such a Batman thing to do he almost laughed as he walked out into the hallway.

Enough internal debates on life-changing decisions. Now he needed to focus. The situation left him no leeway for daydreaming, everything had to be professional and efficient from here on out.

Ohhh, but the look on Bruce’s face. He had to take advantage of the situation while it was under control.

“Ya comin Bats?”

Heheheh. Oh how he’d missed that look of mild terror. That horrifying realization dawning on Bruce’s face as he realized that he had to deal with him now. Ahh, good times.

“Sooo, what’s the plan? Are you going to introduce me to my new teenage handlers? Maybe take me down to where the batcompter knockoff is so we can begin looking for my team? Or maybe we’re going to have a training exercise to see how easily I can kick your butt?”

Bruce was valiantly trying to hide the twitch in his jaw. Jason grinned.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea, how about you give me my helmet back so that way I can disable the alert that’s getting broadcast to my teammates that warns them that I’ve been compromised. I’m guessing that you’d prefer them not to come and burn this place to cinders to find me.” Jason turned halfway to Bruce.

“Although…” he drew the word out, “You never really get tired of seeing a bat-base go up in flames. There’s just something about how wonderfully they burn. Probably the smell of a hundred contingencies going up in flames.” And now Bruce’s jaw twitch was visible to a not-so-casual observer.

Jason: 2 - Bruce: 0

Bruce was trying to bat-glare him into submission, Dick had noticed that B was too busy determining threat level to respond to the unanswered question.

“I’m sure we can get a way for you to contact your team.”

“Nice try Little Rob, but I’m afraid that my helmet’s gonna be the only way to get their attention." He faux sighed. "Distress signal only stops if I say so. They’re trained to continue tracking until I deactivate said distress signal. Contacting them through any other medium won’t keep them from coming.”

Batman narrowed his lenses at him - clearly untrusting.

He put his hands up in pseudo-surrender. “Look Bats, I’m not going to call for them to come in and blow this popsicle stand - as enjoyable as that may be - I’m actually trying to help you, but hey, if you want to risk my buddies coming and deeming you hostiles then be my guest.”

After some internal debating, Batman finally turned down the hallway. The two of them followed, Robin just slightly out of his peripheral vision. Annoying, but hey! They weren’t trying to fight him, so, that’s an improvement from pretty much every single interaction he’d had with the bats for the past few years.

A voice in his head remarked, s _ince you came back from the dead_.

The thought was immediately shut down. That was exactly the kind of opening that would lead to the pit getting active and he really couldn’t risk that due to circumstances.

He swallowed and looked up at the hallway ahead. They were heading back towards the gym. He could feel the presence of the martian a bit. Just that slight fuzzy feeling around the edge of your mind that let you know there was a telepath nearby. Hers was impressively subtle. Had he not been as on guard as he was, he might not have noticed. But he was on guard, and he did very much notice. A part of him wanted to see what would happen if he mentally poked her. Heh. That could be fun.

But he wasn't an idiot and he didn't want to be knocked out, or have her go through his memories, or worst of all, somehow trigger the pit madness again. He'd spent long enough wrestling that beast into a tightly locked room in his mind. Even then it still leaked out, crawling through the cracks when he wasn't paying much attention, ready to poison his mind again. Ah, the joys of being resurrected slash healed via magical puddle of glow-y mind acid.

Robin looked up at him and gave him a half smile. "Sooo... got a nickname?"

"Red."

"Cool. Is your favorite color red or did you just pick that name cause there's a criminal called Red Hood?"

"Um-" He was cut off from answering that difficult question by a flash of yellow and the sound of _very fast_ feet.

"Duuuuuude, your helmet is like, perfect souvenir material. Do you have any extra or do you need that one back? I mean, it's totally cool if you need it, but your crazy arrival kinda brought the mission to an abrupt end, not that it wouldn't have ended soon already cause we'd kinda already been caught, but hey! A guy falling out of the sky is like, a totally awesome way to bust a mission. But it did mean I didn't get a souvenir, so like, do you want that helmet back?"

Okaaay. That was... a lot of very fast words from one very excited Wally West. He had to take a moment to process that. Not the words, Roy tended to word dump pretty fast and he'd gotten good at understanding that... syllable mess, but the fact Wally was _excited_ to see him was a bit of a shock. Normally, Wally was Dick's friend. And Dick's friends were, in general, _not_ Jason's friends. (Kori is an exception. And Roy.) He apparently didn't answer the speedster soon enough.

"By the way, I'm Kid Flash, nice to meet you now that you're awake and everything."

He raised an eyebrow, smirking. " _Kid_ Flash, huh? Well, _kid_ , it's nice to meet you too. I think."

The redhead huffed at Jason's emphasis on the first half of his title. Dick snickered. Batman's next step was a half second shorter, and he grinned. If the kids broke protocol as much as it looked like they did, this might not be too bad after all.

~*~

The light blinked on his screen. Roy stared at the location, tapped the device a few times (you never knew how helpful a few good bonks could be) and then looked at the coordinates again. Yep, still the same. He looked at the google map he'd pulled up on the library computer. The coordinates matched up perfectly.

Welp. That's a bit new. Leaning back into the plastic chair, he looked over to where Kori was running her hand down the side of a fish tank, small bubbles appearing on the other side of the glass as she passed. He sighed happily. She was so hot. Literally as well.

"Hey Kori!"

She stopped admiring the fish (or whatever she was doing) and came over to lean over his shoulder, "Yes?"

"So, it looks like Jaybird's gotten himself inside a small mountain. Again."

Kori looked between the numbers just as he had. "Interesting. Do you suppose it's a magical mountain? Or perhaps a cave system?"

He snickered. "Bats sure do like their caves, so I wouldn't be surprised. But here's the best part." He pointed, grinning, to the name of the town at the base of the mini mountain.

"Happy Harbor?"

"Mhm. Imagine the look on Jaybird's face when he realizes where he is. I don't care if we're being chased by sentient plant assassins, we are so taking a selfie with the greeting sign. And then we're adding it to the photo wall."

"Jason will not appreciate that," she warned, but smirked a bit anyway.

His grin grew wider. "Oh, I know. That's what makes it so fun." Turning back to the screen, he closed the window, and stood up, stretching a bit. "Well. Lets get going. You know how Jay is about being underground."

Kori made a face. "Yes. It is probably best that we move quickly."

Pushing the chair back in, he started out of the library. He kinda wanted to not hack the cameras and erase them out later, just to see what would happen, but if he did that, it would surely come back to bite him and Jay would give him that Look of Disappointment and it's more fun to avoid that whole situation. So that meant taking the time to wipe them after he got out of the library. Yay.

He had always wanted to see what the library would do if they found out someone had snuck in at night though. Especially if the people sneaking in had fire hair and an awesome bow. Yeah, that could be cool. But also they were like, _probably_ in another reality, and in general you don't want to run into your other reality's self cause it causes complications and 50% of the time you were evil.

Would evil work if they were morally grey outlaws of awesomeness? Would they just be less awesome? Can you really have an opposite version of yourself if you're morally grey? These are the questions, people. Important questions. Reality-altering questions. Questions that are usually best answered by experience and he didn't really want to experience that (okay maybe a little bit) so he was _going to wipe the cameras._

He would.

Definitely.

Mostly.

Jay wouldn't be too mad if he just blurred them mostly out so they were unidentifiable, right?

Right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M ALIIIIVE. And my hand is... mostly okay with typing now, so that's great. I have a ton of real world responsibilities though, so I won't be updating as much as I'd like to. I have a few chapters prewritten for this fic, but there aren't many, and I sorta forgot where I was going with it... so that'll be fun to figure out again XD You guys have just as good a guess of where this is gonna end up as I do. Hopefully it's gonna be a sweet ride on the way to wherever it is we're going ;P


	4. What's in a Name?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am alive. I know. Shocking. I have not tragically passed away yet. Nor have I forgotten this fic. Enjoy this chapter to your heart's content.

Wally was bouncing on his toes, waiting impatiently for Batman and the mystery dude to finally leave the evidence room. Robin leaned against the wall outside the door, working on hacking into the security cameras so he could see what was going on. The two of them, gun dude and Batman, not him and Robin, were doing something with that really cool helmet. Which was... probably slightly less cool looking since they'd needed to break it to get it off and to stop doing crazy things. The level of defenses on that thing were a bit over the top. When Connor had tried to take the helmet off to make sure the guy was okay, he ended up getting a nasty shock and they'd ended up needing to have Megan take it off the rest of the way. So it was a bit less... intact now. Whoops.

He looked at the door for what had to be the sixtieth time in the past few minutes. Ughhh why were they taking so long?! He wanted to find out more about mystery guy who fell out of the sky! Not stand here in a hallway for ages waiting for Batman.

"Hey Rob?"

"What?"

"What's mystery dude's name?"

"Red Hood, but apparently just calling him Red is fine."

"Seriously? First we've got Red Tornado, then we've got Red Arrow, and now we've got Red Hood! Next thing I know, you're gonna be calling yourself Red Robin!"

Robin rolled his eyes. "Really? Red Robin? Isn't that a bit redundant since robins are _already_ red?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. Tornadoes aren't red. And arrows and hoods can be different colors, so at least Red Robin would like, be correct."

"I am not calling myself Red Robin. I can think of a million names way more asterous than that."

"I could be Red Flash."

Robin looked up at him, smirking a bit. "At least that would be better than _Kid_ Flash. And you've got red hair, so..."

Whatever his admittedly brilliant response to that was going to be was cut off by the doors _finally_ opening.

Rob pushed away from the wall, his screens disappearing as he did. Red Hood came out first, followed by Batman. Neither looked pleased, though Batman never really looked pleased so that wasn't saying much.

"What happened?"

Batman grunted eloquently. Red Hood ended up being the one to respond. "Your Martian teammate damaged some of the systems of my helmet in her... less conventional way of removing it. Basically, I can't tell if my team is coming for me or not, and I can't contact them to let them know you guys aren't hostiles."

Oh. Well. That was... not great. But hey, at least Red Hood didn't seem to want to hurt them. Even if he did look a bit less like a hero with those guns of his and the other weapons he could see clearly. So maybe like an in-between?

Batman brushed past them. "Kid Flash, Robin, gather the rest of the Team for a briefing in six minutes."

Robin frowned, but didn't say anything. Just watching as the two older men walked down the hallway and around the corner before turning away. "Come on, KF. Let's get the others."

[Six minutes later]

Batman walked in, Red Hood next to him, and eyed the current members of the team gathered, Rob, himself, Megan, Kaldur, and Connor. Artemis was out on a mission and was due to be back at any moment. But Batman didn't seem to care about this and wasn't waiting.

"As you know, Red Hood was rescued-" The older teenager rolled his eyes at this, "-during your last mission, which we will be discussing later."

Whoops. Probably another "What part of _Covert_ do you not understand?" briefing. Followed by more assigned teamwork exercises.

Batman continued, "For the time being, Red Hood will be staying at this facility, until we have determined what the next actions are that will be taken in regard to him."

"By 'we' do you mean us, or the Justice League?" Robin asked.

"That will be decided later. For now, all you need to be aware of is that Red Hood claims to be a neutral party who's going to be kept under watch until we have sufficient evidence that he is not a threat."

Red Hood huffed a quiet, short laugh at that, but had a serious look on his face by the time Batman had turned to him. Huh. Interesting.

After a slight pause, Batman turned back to them. "You are not to be alone in a room with him until I, Black Canary, or Red Tornado gives the all clear. You also are not to leave him alone except for in a few select rooms you will be informed of later. If he makes any move to use any of his weapons, alert the team before interacting." He glanced at Megan for a quick second, and she bowed her head, understanding the silent message. The mind link was to be kept open as if they were on a mission. Got it.

"Are there any questions?"

Well, he had a ton of questions. But most of them wouldn't be the kinds of ones Batman was willing to answer. Not "necessary" or something. Like when lunch was.

Kaldur stepped forwards, "Sir, what about training?"

"That decision is up to Black Canary's discrecion. For now, do not-" Batman cut off, turning slightly away and raising one hand to his com. "Yes? ... I understand." He looked back to the team. "If you need me, contact me.'' And with that, he left the room.

There was a moment of silence.

Kaldur, the master of un-awkwarding moments, spoke up. "My name is Kaldur'ahm, I am Aqualad."

"Red Hood, but you already knew that." He gave Kaldur a bit of a lopsided smile. "What about the rest of you?"

Megan smiled somewhat brightly at the older teen. "I am Miss Martian, this is Superboy, Robin, and Kid Flash."

Connor grunted a reply, arms crossed and slightly glaring. Wally waved again, even though they'd already met.

"Hey, so, do you go by anything else other than Red Hood?"

The teenager shook his head a bit, smirking. "Not any names I'm going to give you, Kid. But Red is what I'm sometimes called by my teammates while out on a mission."

"Well, we've got a lot of 'Red' people around here, so is Hood okay? Or do you want us to help you think of a cool nickname?" He grinned.

Hood rolled his eyes, "Yeah, cause I'm gonna take advice on naming from _Kid_ _Flash, Superboy, Aqualad,_ and bird boy."

Rob raised an eyebrow. "Bird boy? Really?"

The older teen grinned. "Well, I mean, I could think of a few others if that one doesn't meet your fancy. Boy Wonder, Goldie," his smirk twisted the smallest bit deeper, " _Dickhead,_ just to name a few."

What.

Robin froze. The rest of the team tensed, but they didn't get it. Not like how Wally got it. And boy did he get it. To be honest, he was torn between shocked and awed because _he went for it, wow._

Dick's eyes narrowed. Hood's smirk grew a bit. A taunt almost.

" _Red_ _Hood,"_ Kaldur spoke somewhat sharply, "If you are to stay here, you are to be civil. Name calling of that variety is not tol-"

"It's okay, Kaldur." Robin interrupted, in a way that really didn't reassure anyone that he thought this was okay. "Actually, I was just thinking, maybe we should test your skills, Hood. In case we need to fight anyone as a team or anything."

Megan and Connor frowned, but Robin was already walking over towards the training area of the cave. "Come on, I'm curious to see how good at sparring you are."

After a tense pause, Hood moved to follow him. There was definitely something going on between them on another level than just the name and it was weird and he didn't like it. He ran up next to Dick.

"Dude, what are you doing?"

Robin didn't answer, just frowned a bit more.

"Rob, I get that the name calling," he dropped his tone a bit more, "was... upsetting, but I really am not sure this is the best idea."

"It'll be fine, KF. It's just going to be a quick spar."

He didn't like this idea. He didn't like it one bit.

~~~

M'gann bit her lip and watched Robin as he walked over towards the training area. His back was tight and she could feel his shock and sudden apprehension through the mind link, which she'd opened a bit more after Batman's command.

Connor moved up next to her as they followed the others, Kaldur falling in step next to Hood, with Robin and Kid Flash up ahead. He frowned. "I don't like this. There's something else going on here and Robin isn't telling us something."

She frowned a bit more. "Robin usually keeps a lot of secrets, but I don't think he would intentionally keep something important hidden." Her eyes drifted over towards Hood. _Actually,_ she said to Connor mentally, _Hood is concerning me more._

_Why?_

_I'm not entirely sure..._ She watched him go over and stand a few feet away from Robin after Kaldur ran over a few sparring rules. _I think he seems... too oblivious. I can sense his mind, but it's like he's pretending he doesn't know I can feel him. But most people who are sensitive to telepathy are aware that something's happening, and they don't know how to hide that realization from the telepath. But Hood... he's aware and he knows how to pretend he isn't._

Connor frowned more. _That doesn't sound like a good thing._

 _I'm not sure..._ She blinked, and Kaldur stepped back. Robin attacked first, and the next thing she knew, he was tumbling to the ground. Hood had moved out of the way of his kick with impressive speed, and easily knocked him over as he did so.

The whole fight hadn't even lasted two seconds.

Robin popped back up to his feet and attacked again, but this time with a lot more ferocity than they'd usually seen from him in sparring. But this one ended even sooner, with Robin getting slammed into the floor with a considerable amount of force.

Everyone froze as Robin sucked in a short, pained breath.

Silence. Then the twang of a bowstring and a streak flying too fast for the eye to follow – aimed perfectly for its target.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When will I write more? No-one knows. Leaving a comment, however, does more to encourage me to write than any kudos or views or subscriptions. Even if it's a small comment. I can assure you that even the tiniest comments brighten my day considerably and help propel me past a writer's block. 
> 
> Thank you to all who give comments. You are 98% of what keeps me writing and updating on here.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to all who give comments. You are 98% of what keeps me writing and updating on here. Even if it's just a small comment. I can assure you that even the tiniest comments brighten my day considerably and help propel me past writer's block.


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